How salary determines relations in Russian families

Only 26 percent of Russian men can boast of a relationship with a woman who is financially more successful. Source: Getty Images / Fotobank

Nearly half of all Russian women, as well as the overwhelming majority of Russian men, are willing to build a relationship with a significant other who brings home considerably less than they do, according to a survey by recruitment research center Superjob.ru.

According to Superjob.ru’s survey, 90 percent of males believe that a woman
should be the guardian of the hearth, and if she works, it should be a labor of
love, regardless of earnings. "A man should earn more than his chosen
one," they said.

Only three percent would be unable to build a relationship with a woman who
earned significantly less, while the remaining seven percent were undecided.

About half (45
percent) of women would be prepared to live with a man who earned significantly
less, while 25 percent would not. Thirty percent of women had trouble answering
this delicate question.

It is natural for
women — who usually have an eye not just on their own welfare but on their
children's future too — to prefer their partner to have a high salary. According
to the survey, 80 percent of women would find such an arrangement agreeable.

In
their view, such a financial imbalance would only benefit the family.

"I've been looking for such a man... He should earn at least twice as much
as his partner," ladies say.

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Only four percent
of women are not ready to form a bond with a man who earns significantly more
than they do: "I don't want people to say I was picked out of a garbage
dump... There's no point relying on a man."

Sixteen percent of female
respondents were undecided.

A relationship
with a woman who earns significantly more than her other half would be
acceptable to 61 percent of the men surveyed.

"There is no room in family
life to be reproachful about income... Life is not measured in rubles,"
say male respondents.

Fourteen percent
of men would not be able to find common ground with a woman who made more
money, because such a union would "undermine their masculinity."
Meanwhile, 25 percent of men said they could not say either way.

In actuality, 35
percent of Russian women have experience of being with a partner who earns less
than they do. Almost one-in-two women (49 percent) admitted that they had not
had occasion to build a relationship with a man who earned significantly less,
while 16 percent answered that they could not remember these details.

On the other
hand, 42 percent of women have dated or even lived with a man who earned much more.
For some, the experience was positive — for others, only negative.

"I
lived off him, became work-shy. In the end, we split up because he didn't want
to support me any more... It drove me to earn more myself." Forty-four
percent of Russian women have not had a relationship with a man who earned
more, while 14 percent were undecided.

More than half of
Russian men (53 percent) have had a relationship with a woman who earned less.
Attitudes vary:

"My wife never worked — maybe that's why we have such a strong
family... As soon as she began to earn more than me, we got divorced, after 14
years of marriage." Twenty-eight percent of men have never dated a woman
who earned less, and 19 percent could not answer.

Finally, only 26
percent of Russian men can boast of a relationship with a woman who is
financially more successful: "In the end, we had to split up, because it
wasn't clear who wore the pants... My girlfriend earns 2-3 times more than
me... It encouraged me to try and get a promotion."

62 percent of men have
never entered into a relationship with a woman more financially successful than
they, and 12 percent were undecided.